Providence (Ruth 1)
Notes
Transcript
What do I want them to know? Come home and dwell/remain at home during times of hardship
Why? It is where the blessings, promises and love of God echo
What do I want them to do? Come home
Why? Blessings, promises and love are there
What do I want them to feel? Encouraged
We are doing several weeks on the major themes, foundational attributes of who God is, foundational doctrines that are foundational to our faith.
Last week we talked about that our God is a God who has a covenantial relationship us. The deepest of all relationships....it is not a casual relationship but a deep initmate one.
This week and for next couple of weeks we are going to be learning about the a theological foundational attribute that many Christians have called one of the most comforting and encouraging attributes of God (and it crosses over and connects with covenant at times)....What attribute is that?
- of the providence of God.
What’s the providence of God?
What word do you see in this word? Provide
Provide means to take care of of.
Provide will take care of it, see to it that something will happen, meet the needs of His people....provision
pro = for
vide = see to it
provide means to see it that something will be taken care of for someone.
What does it mean then we put Providence and God together (God is going to see to it, make sure it happens, provide…what does that look like?
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Question 27. What does you mean by the providence of God?
Answer: The almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by his hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures; so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, and all things come, not by chance, but be his Fatherly hand.
he almighty and everywhere present power of God; whereby, as it were by his hand, He upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures;...all things come, not by chance, but be his Fatherly hand.
Question 28. What advantage is it to us to know that God has created, and by his providence does still uphold all things? so what God is provident, who cares
Answer: That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from his love; since all creatures are so in his hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
THIS IS OUR GOD
When do we need to hear this message the MOST? (is true at all times)
When things are going well? When are marriage is flourishing? When are nation is trusting in God more and more? When our bank account is increasing?
NO, though it is still true then.... God is providence is still true whether we going throw a season of harvest or a season of storms
NO, it when we are going through hard seasons where
- our finical situation is not looking good,
- when our relationships are hard, difficult, on the verge of being broken, or our broken
or when our whole world is going through a pandemic and see our country act and respond in ways that are so FOOLISH
What do we do what hope do we have?
WE REMIND OURSELVES AND OUR ANCHOR OURSELVES IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD....THAT WE DO NOT THE FUTURE BUT WE KNOW THE ONE WHO HOLDS THE FUTURE.
In the doctrine and attribute we are encouraged to cling to.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
WHAT WE ARE GOING TO SEE OVER THE NEXT COUPLES WEEKS AS WE DIVE INTO A BOOK OF THE BIBLE THAT IS THE THEME OF THE BOOK IS PROVIDENCE AND NOT NOT ONLY THAT IT IS THEE ONLY OT BOOK NAMED AFTER A NON-JEWISH PERSON RUTH IS NOT JEWISH
What we are going to witness is God’s providence show up over and over to two woman named Naomi and Ruth who are in very bad situation.
And today we are going to DIVE into RUTH 1 and discover that and see God’s PROVIDENCE PROVIDE TO DURING A TIME WHEN Naomi’s family and the nation of Israel are in a dire situation, not good situation.
A situation that goes from bad to worse to worse....we are going to see the PROBLEM and God’s PROVIDENCE, the beginning of it....
Then we are going to see Elemelech the husband of Naomi’s response to the problem as the leader of the family and then Naomi’s response to the problem
This is ACT 1, Ruth 1:1-8
LET’S PRAY
GOD
In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
What is going on here? When is this taking place?
in the days when the judges ruled
What kind of days were those? Days of hope and mercy and goodness? No, the days the judges ruled were days of darkness
Why?
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
In the day of the judges people including judges did what was right in their own eyes. What they see fitting to do they did....they did not do what was right in God’s and when a group of people decided to do what they want and not what God wants you get chaos, anarchy, that leads to DARKNESS
IT GOT SO DARK IT LEAD TO A FAMINE?
How can I say that? How can I correlate their darkness to famine?
The covenantial promise of blessing and cursing that God makes with Israel in Deut 28 let read a couple of these verses
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.
And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.
And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.
The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.
And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,
and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
This is amazing if you faithfully obey God these good things are going to happen to you…over abundance…you will never need to borrow ....NO FAMINE, NO DARKNESS
If you follow faithfully after God
BUT IF YOU DO NOT OBEY
WHAT HAPPENS?
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
I will share a couple of the curses
Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock.
The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it.
You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.
Look what the God says if you do not do what I command it will not go well for you...
It is also ironic WHERE DOES THE FAMINE HAPPEN???? Bethlehem which names means “house of bread”
It is also ironic WHERE DOES THE FAMINE HAPPEN???? Bethlehem which names means “house of bread”
What should they do in this situation? They one of of two choices
1. Repent....what happens when we repent? We see this over and over in scripture
Therefore thus says the Lord: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,
keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
2. Reject: continued in disobedience…continue to do what is right in there own eyes…continue to receive the curse of the broken covenant...
What does Naomi’s family do? Where does Elimelech, the man of the house do, who’s name means “my God is king”
Repent? Turn back to “my God is king”
NO
Reject
and they reject God, not only do they reject they utterly and vehemently reject God
HOW?
They are going to leave the land where, their land, God’s land, the land where God wants them to, go to Moab
MOAB!?!
MOAB was bitter enemies of Israel....they didn’t like each other and they rejected God…they worshipped Chemosh
Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
MOAB is a scrub bucket, you know the dirtiness that is at the bottom of the scrub bucket.
Why?
They rejected YHWH
Why?
Moab, in the human terms, in the natural was FAMINE proof was a lush land that received rain and winds off the Jordan Valley often carry moisture in the air that lands on their land.
SHOW PICTURE
From outward, human eyes, it is famine proof.
Elimelech says we are going to go there…they trusted their eyes and not promises of God
Have we not been there?
Our eyes saying going there is better and God is saying stay
In the midst of the situation…God says repent....turn back…turn back to God..stay in Bethlehem “the house of bread”....repentance is just one step…instead he marches his family forward..
What happens after they go there as sojourns? They are sojourns/foreigners to a land where their bitter enemies lived.
When they reject God (I don’t know how all this is connected to their disobedience, the scriptures do not say)
Things go from bad to worse then to even more worse
But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
Here husband dies, the man who led them there dies.
My God is king dies
Can you image that?
But she has some hope, why? she still has two sons and they have wives
These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years,
she still has her two sons who have wives
she has her two sons (who are not responsible for taking care of their mom because woman did not have the ability in the culture of that day to provide for themselves, woman were not allowed to work high paying jobs, therefore when a husband died it was either her father’s responsibility to provide for her or if she had sons her sons responsibility. Her sons are going to carry the mantel.....these and they marry woman. And hopefully they will have children to carry the family line....
IN our one of the most prize possessions is for someone to carry the family name.
There’s hope!
one of the most shameful things in those days is not have your family name carry on, you were looked down upon.
They lived there 10 years.
Then what happens, things go from bad to worse to worser
and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi is the worst of all situaitons.
ALL SENSE OF SECRUTIY, FUTURE ARE GONE
Husband is dead
Sons are dead
In Moab, a sojourner, she is not respected like a native Moabite
Future hope gone
No hope of grandchildren
What happens at the blinkest time in Naomi’s life?
God shows up and provides?
The providence of God
Let’s read Ruth 1:6b
Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that the Lord had visited his people and given them food.
God had healed their land, the famine is over.
What is she going to do?
Is she going to continue to reject God, like her husband?
RETUN or REPENT go to go back to Bethlehem “the house of bread” because God has shown up.
This is not easy decision to go back because it means to swallow your pride and admit you were wrong and God was right…and also how are people going to treat her there?
What does she do?
So she set out from the place where she was with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
She decides to go back, this is not easy decision:
because to go back means to swallow your pride and say you were wrong.
This is what trips many us from coming to God....for to come to God, to truly repent means to say I was wrong and you were right.....but the promise of repentance is blessing.
Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
GOD USES HER BIGGEST PAIN TO GET HER ATTENTION
What so good about God is God will use affliction to wake us up
Godness of God is He uses affliction to wake us up.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.
before there were consequence from my rebellion I went away but when the consequence come because of sin I went back.
God uses painful moments for redemption and goodness.
- What this means is God’s brought afflication upon me for me to repent....if there was not afflication we would be less likely to turn
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” - C.S. Lewis
“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” - C.S. Lewis
God is saying “It’s time to come home, I have provide for you…come home”
She knows that going back is risky because how is the community going to respond to her....towns in those days were not big…going back a widow.
All she knows is God is provide for her and her people and it is time to go back to the “house of bread” where God has provided and leave the results up to God.
to surrender to God.
We see how this story of God’s providence unfolds over the next few weeks.
US
WHAT GOD IS SAYING TO US IS GOD IS YOUR PROVIDER REMAIN IN BETHLEHEM OR RETURN TO BETHLEHEM....GOOD THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN IN BETHLEHEM
WE SEE THIS HAPPEN AGAIN 1000 YEARS LATER HAPPEN IN BETHLEHEM IN THE DARKEST TIMES IN NATION OF ISRAEL WHERE THEY ARE ABOUT TO BE WIPED OUT…
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
WHO IS CALLED THE BREAD OF LIFE
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.